Federal budget passes; fewer troops need military pay day loans

Congress has finally approved the federal budget for 2011. It took a long time, and there was quite the standoff. Many were afraid that a government shutdown would have sent military service members, among other federal workers, running for payday advance as they would not be paid during a shutdown. That said, a shutdown was thankfully avoided. The next trifle in government waits.

Problem shutdown would have brought on for deployed

For Fiscal Year 2011, Congress upheld a bill. There was a lot of stress about a government shutdown during all of this. Congress would have been paid still while several other government employees would have lost payment if there was a shutdown, which did not take place. Some would have been required to work still too. For instance, military members are always required to be on duty. They wouldn’t get paid during a shutdown though. Federal regulations prohibit service personnel from getting payday advance or comparable subprime credit products, and most service personnel, according to MSNBC, make close to the average wage in The United States, it would have been a devastating blow to military families.

Military personnel salaries

There are three in four individuals getting paid $31,000 or less a year in the armed services. The median earnings are at $36,587 in the United States according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The mean is at $44,901, making it a little higher. Military personal are making less than the average person no matter which scale you take. Service families tend to have debt issues, the Washington Post reported a 2008 Department of Defense survey saying. There are also problems with bankruptcy as shown in a 2004 study the Government Accountability Office did. It showed that bankruptcy was filed by 1.2 percent of military members that are on active duty. Federal court statistics indicates that more than 1.5 million individuals filed for bankruptcy last year, which is 0.5 percent of the United States population.

Service the country is not worth all that much apparently

The people who elect to serve this country do not get rewarded much for their efforts. If service members get too much debt, they can lose their security clearance making it harder for them. With a shutdown happening, there would have been other possibilities. Luckily, the people do not have to worry over it. The Naval Federal Member Bank offered low interest unsecured loans to members in case of a shutdown, like other credit unions and banks for federal employees have done in previous shutdowns.

Information from

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/42559366/ns/business-your_retirement/?gt1=43001

Washington Post

washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/military-pay-faces-uncertain-future-troubling-for-financially-strapped-families/2011/04/08/AFHV311C_blog.html

Bureau of Labor Statistics

bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/nctb1346.pdf

U.S. Courts

uscourts.gov/uscourts/Statistics/BankruptcyStatistics/BankruptcyFilings/2010/0310_f2.pdf

Government Accountability Office

gao.gov/new.items/d04465r.pdf

Government Accountability Office

gao.gov/new.items/d04465r.pdf